■ JAPAN
Kurd granted residency
The government said yesterday it was giving residency to a Turkish Kurd, his Filipina wife and their daughter in a rare move by a country that accepts few refugees or immigrants. The justice ministry agreed to grant the family residency rights for one year after judges rejected their plea against deportation but urged out-of-court negotiations. "Due to humanitarian considerations, we will begin procedures to issue special residency status," Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama told reporters. "The status is for one year for now, but they can extend it." The family -- a 32-year-old Kurdish man of Turkish nationality, his 41-year-old wife and their seven-year-old daughter, were ordered deported in 2004. Their names were not released. The man said he feared "persecution" in Turkey because he skipped mandatory military service.
■ NORTH KOREA
Dear Leader donates honey
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has donated several tonnes of wild honey as part of his "profound loving care" for patients at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, state media said yesterday. The recent gift of honey and hundreds of kilograms of rare honey tonics are the latest in a series of such donations totaling more than 100 tonnes since the hospital opened, the Korean Central News Agency said.
■ CHINA
Pandas "sexercise"
Notoriously sex-shy pandas are being put through a rigorous "sexercise" program in a new effort to encourage them to mate, state media reported yesterday. The Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center in Sichuan Province is making male pandas walk on their two legs to strengthen their pelvic and hip muscles, to better prepare them for sex, the China Daily said. The move is achieved by luring pandas up with an apple, the report said.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Military limits bathing
Soldiers have been asked to cut down on communal baths and training schedules as part of a government drive to save energy, officials said yesterday. The directive aimed at reducing the military's fuel usage came at an emergency meeting of senior army, navy and air force officials last week, the defense ministry said in Seoul. The military aims to save about 77 billion won (US$78 million), or 11 percent of its annual fuel bill. "From April 1 officers are asked to go to communal bathhouses at their bases twice a week, not three times," a ministry spokesman said. "Enlisted soldiers can shower anytime but they are told to take a [communal] bath once a week as stipulated in our regulations," he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Hawaii volcano spurts lava
Small splatters of molten lava have been ejected from Halemaumau Crater for the first time since 1982. Officials with the US Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory say some of the particles -- the largest of which measure 10cm across -- have landed on the rim of the crater. Geologists have discovered thin strands of volcanic glass known as "Pele's hair" along with small bits of volcanic glass known as "Pele's tears" in the crater overlook area.
■ UNITED STATES
Whalers refuse plea deal
Five men charged with killing a gray whale off Washington State rejected a plea deal on Monday. The Makah Tribe members believed they were acting within their rights when they harpooned and shot the whale on Sept. 8 in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, defense attorney Jack Fiander said. They still planned to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. As expected at their hearing on Monday, prosecutors agreed not to recommend jail time but surprised the men when they said the government was interested in seeking to prevent them from whaling while on probation. The hunters said they would rather take their chances at trial.
■ UNITED STATES
Pilot's gun discharges
A gun belonging to the pilot of a US Airways plane went off as the aircraft was on approach to land in North Carolina over the weekend, the first time a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots was fired, authorities said. The "accidental discharge" on Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver, Colorado, to Charlotte did not endanger the aircraft or the 124 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants aboard, Greg Alter of the Federal Air Marshal Service said. The federal Transportation Security Administration is investigating how the gun discharged, Alter said. Officials did not say what the bullet hit.
■ UNITED STATES
Court charges TB carrier
An man with a virulent form of tuberculosis (TB) who was once confined to a hospital jail ward for failing to wear a mask in public has been indicted on felony charges in Arizona. Prosecutors said on Monday there was no evidence Robert Daniels had exposed anyone to his multiple drug-resistant TB before he was quarantined in 2006, but they still charged him with two counts of unlawful introduction of disease or parasite. Daniels, who has US and Russian citizenship, has been living in Russia since October. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Russian authorities did not know Daniels' whereabouts but were looking for him. "If he does come here, he'll be arrested on these criminal violations," he said.
■ UNITED STATES
`Diddy' settles punch-up suit
Sean "Diddy" Combs has settled a lawsuit brought by a man who claims the rapper and fashion mogul punched him after a post-Oscar party outside a Hollywood hotel. The terms of the deal were not disclosed in court papers posted on Monday on the celebrity Web site TMZ.com. The lawsuit by Gerard Rechnitzer claimed that Combs punched him, pushed his girlfriend and spat on another woman on Feb. 25 last year outside Teddy's Nightclub at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. In a court declaration, Combs said Rechnitzer lunged toward him and that "any contact ... was caused by his forward motion against my open hand.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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